Christmas Memories

Semester Wrap-Up

Math:
Peter is almost done with the 4th grade math book.  He has mastered multi-digit multiplication and is cruising through long division.  His problem solving skills and perseverance have also improved by leaps and bounds.

Elliot is a little over half way done with the first grade math book.  He is working on strengthening his addition and subtraction facts and staying focused for brief periods of independent work; next he will be delving into double digit addition.

Reading:
The boys are shaping up to both be strong readers.  Peter just devours books at an astonishing rate, and Elliot is reading confidently at a high first grade level.

History:
We have finished up our study of Renaissance history.  Here the boys are painting the riverside garden king Babur the Tiger planted during the Moghul Dynasty in India.  

Geography:
Peter has now learned to label many of the countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania.  Next up he is going to learn the US states and capitals.

Spanish:
Peter is doing very well, and has completed the first Unit of Rosetta Stone Spanish...along with several other resources to reinforce Spanish Grammar.

Elliot and Spencer have been focusing on Spanish vocab.

Electronics:
Peter has been taking an electronics course, which sends him projects in the mail.

Art:

Halloween 2016

Happy Birthday, Audrey!!

Addy Girl at one year old!!

Getting a bare-naked big brother birthday love headlock.

Painted Paper

Over the past few years, as I have been browsing the web looking at kids' art project ideas, I have come across a lot of Eric Carle-esque painted paper art.  They always looked like great, fun projects for the kids, integrating shapes and textures and sensory exploration, but I was always a bit unsure about how to go about making the painted paper.  The various art project sites that featured the painted paper projects were normally geared toward classrooms full of children and they all warned about what a messy project it was.  Hmmmmmmm.

So here is my rundown of home-based, low-mess painted paper process art with my three boys.

The Set-Up:

I decided to have four stations each contained on a cookie sheet.  I used take-out trays to hold the paint and texture tools.  Then I laid out three colors at each station that I thought would work well together.

My texture tools mostly came from around the house and the dollar store.  At each station I wanted at least one tool to stamp/sponge with and one tool to scrape with.  There were also some stencils and some other unusual textures.

I also filled a bucket with warm, slightly soapy water for the frequent hand washes I anticipated.

The Process:

Two stations were on the floor and two were on the table.  The boys were free to move to an open station whenever they finished a painting.

The Results:

These are just a few of the painted papers the boys created.

The Clean Up:

I tossed the paint trays and plopped all the brushes and texture tools into the washing up bucket.  As they soaked for a few minutes, I washed the cookie sheets and wiped up the couple paint dribbles that had gotten onto the table and floor.  Most of the texture tools are just plastic and/or metal, so they washed up easy-peasy.  The brushes and sponges took a couple more minutes, but the whole clean up effort only took about 15 minutes total, so about average compared to most of the art projects we do around here.

Addy Girl at 11.5 Months

Audrey's birthday is exactly two weeks from today.  She is getting mobile, opinionated and as curious as the proverbial cat.  She is also a Daddy's girl through and through.

2nd, K and Preschool So Far - Art

We have been doing a nice mix of process art, product art, history-linked art and superhero drawing.

Viking Sensory Tub

Oh, my, goodness have the boys LOVED this sensory tub.

It all starts on a peaceful little farm along the Seine where the Franks are fishing and tending their fields where oats, peas, beans and barley grow.  (I assume that song is historically accurate.)

But in the distance they hear the splash, splash, splash of oars.  It's the Vikings come to pillage the town!!

As you can imagine, chaos ensues...especially when you have three little boys at the helm.  Eventually the Vikings take over the area of Normandy and many become farmers.  Some however still have wanderlust in their blood; Eric the Red tries to persuade them to come to his new settlement on the lush, island paradise of Greenland.  "Come on over, Guys, the weather is fine!!"

Oh, bother.

2nd Grade So Far - Spanish

Peter's Spanish has been improving by leaps and bounds.  He has been working with a couple of online programs and soon we are going to start incorporating a book that will help teach the grammatical concepts a little more explicitly.

He has been composing sentences out of word cards I made for him.